On March 1st 1954 the United States tested its first deliverable hydrogen bomb at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The weapon yielded a force three times as large as its designers had planned or anticipated.1 The radioactive fallout cloud that resulted from the weapon would kill a fisherman located 100 km away, cause illness in hundreds and perhaps thousands of …
Silicon Valley Emerges as a Political Force By David Sirota
When Jeb Bush visited Silicon Valley this week, the Republican candidate was visiting the heart of a Democratic state that few expect to be contested in the 2016 presidential election. But when it comes to the political money chase, the Northern California home of the world’s technology giants spreads the wealth to both parties—positioning the tech industry as one of …
New SWAT Documents Detail the Brutal Reality of U.S. Police Militarization – Carey Wedler
Massachusetts SWAT teams made headlines last year when they refused to grant a public information request to the ACLU, claiming they were “private companies” and, therefore, exempt from such inquiry. The ACLU subsequently sued, and last month, it received access to the documents it requested. The documents confirm that broad overreach, unnecessary and overblown tactics, and an eagerness to attack are increasingly present …
Newly Available Documents Trace Evolution of Spy Units through Obama Administration
On April 20, 2012, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta formally established a new Department of Defense spy organization — the Defense Clandestine Service (DCS). That memo marked yet another in the multiple starts, stops, and reversals in the human intelligence activities of the Department of Defense and the military services. The defense community’s rocky history of involvement with HUMINT includes …
Trojan Horse: The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) Has Already Bought Off Washington By Shawn Helton
Although the House of Representatives voted down legislation to “fast-track” trade deals through Congress – it appears the TPP may have already secured its future with millions in donations made to US Senators since the start of the year… The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal negotiations hit the mainstream over the past month with a US Senate approval of the controversial trade bill …
The Jade Helm Military Exercise: The Psy Op? By Jay Dyer
For most consumers of alternative news and media, the lineup of the players constitutes the tyrants and their systemic control, and the enlightened underground, with both sides fighting the great battle of winning the hearts and minds of the rest of the public. For the alternative news and information community, the possibility of large-scale psychological operations within alternative media itself …
Isis claims it could buy its first nuclear weapon from Pakistan within a year – HEATHER SAUL
Isis has used the latest issue of its propaganda magazine Dabiq to suggest the group is expanding so rapidly it could buy its first nuclear weapon within a year. The hyperbolic article, which the group attributes to the British hostage John Cantlie, claims Isis has transcended its roots as “the most explosive Islamic ‘group’ in the modern world” to evolve into “the …
Groups Call Foul Over Google Attempt to Ensnare Kids in ‘Advertising Empire’ – Sarah Lazare
Prominent advocacy organizations charged on Tuesday that the YouTube Kids app, marketed by Google as a family-friendly and child-appropriate platform, is in fact neither, featuring “disturbing” and “potentially harmful” content. The latest accusations were issued by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and Center for Digital Democracy as an update to an earlier complaint against Google, owner of YouTube, filed with the Federal Trade …
The secret of happiness? Stop feeling bad about being unhappy – Tim Lott
I am going to come out of the closet, and make a shocking, even shameful, admission. I am not a happy person. In fact I am the sort of chap who complete strangers come up to in the street and advise to cheer up, since it might never happen. I am not, I should emphasise, an unhappy person either. I love to …
California Water Authorities Using Smart Meter Data as Evidence to Impose Fines
The smart grid isn’t coming. It’s already here. Everywhere people’s houses are being fitted if they already haven’t with smart electric meters and smart water meters. These meters communicate real-time usage data via radio frequency (which comes with its own set of health problems). Essentially, consumption of utilities in your home is being big brother tracked and traced at all times …